Andretti Autosport – What They’re Saying. Race. Watkins Glen

The Verizon IndyCar Series return to Watkins Glen is official with the checkered flag of today’s 60-lap race. Series rookie Alexander Rossi led his teammates to the finish line with an eighth-place result, his sixth top 10 of the season. Colombian Carlos Munoz was credited with leading three laps after starting form 16th; Munoz brought the hhgregg Honda home in 11th. The United Fiber & Data / Snapple Honda took a gamble with strategy today, placing Marco Andretti inside the top three during pit rotations; he went on to finish 12th. With series veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay taking the green flag from 19th, the 16-time race winner officially made his 200th Indy car career start, ending the day in P14 after strategy forced fuel saving.

After a weekend off, the series will make the cross-country trip to Northern California for the season finale race at Sonoma Raceway on September 18.Alexander RossiNo. 98 Castrol EDGE / Curb Honda
“I think it was a decent race. We had to save a lot of fuel there at the end, so I think a potential top five slipped through our hands because of that. But generally I think with a disappointing qualifying, that is the best that we could come up with. We’ll have to take this result and move on to Sonoma.”

Carlos MuñozNo. 26 hhgregg Honda
“I don’t know, it was kind of a weird race, really. We were a little bit lucky on the yellow in the beginning and then we just didn’t have enough speed. I think compared to where we were in qualifying we improved, but it wasn’t enough. I think the hhgregg team worked really hard over the weekend. We tried hundreds of different things but we never got it exactly right. But I can’t say thanks enough to the guys for working really, really hard this weekend, it’s too bad we just didn’t get it right.”

Marco AndrettiNo. 27 United Fiber & Data / Snapple Honda“That’s as good as we were going to get for the UFD / Snapple car today. It was fun running up with the leaders for a bit, but we knew it was short lived due to the strategy we were on. We need to pick up mechanical grip. I’m sawing at the wheel when guys are just going straight and putting the power down. It’s just frustrating. We don’t seem to have the grip anyone else does.”

Ryan Hunter-ReayNo. 28 DHL Honda“Not the position we wanted to see the DHL Honda in to end our weekend at Watkins Glen. We really enjoyed being back at The Glen and are looking forward to being back in 2017. Our strategy was just off all day. We ended up saving fuel when in the end it would have been faster to have just taken a pit stop. On to Sonoma where we can hopefully end the season on a better note.”